Duty before Romance
by Sailor Water Dragon
Summary: Right after "Burning Low". Finn desperately needing someone to talk to after a long and emotionally exhausting day, he visits Marceline. He had no intention of reopening old wounds. Implied Marceline/Bubblegum


No words were exchanged, no knock on the door or greeting.

Marceline remained suspended in the air in the middle of her living and silently watched as Finn let himself in, walked towards the couch and promptly fell face first onto top of it.

She stared at the boy as he let out a long sigh of relief, despite being on the most uncomfortable couch known in Ooo.

"Uh….hey Finn" she started, floating upright with her axe resting in her lap.

"Hey Marcy…" he mumbled back.

He looked like a dead slug on her cushions, "You ok little dude?" she asked with sincere worry in her voice as she drifted closer to gently flick one of his ears on his hat.

He shook his head, "No…I'm all..emotionally exhausted…n junk"

"Ah! You came to the right place" she smiled, placing her axe on the floor she sat in the air waiting to play psychologist. Well not exactly, but since their adventures together they both found it surprisingly easy to talk to each other about emotional issues. Of course, Finn noticed her issues were expressed through song.

Many of their "jam sessions" were just him listening to her pour her heart out.

Today, however, it was her turn to listen.

"Lay it on me"

He let out a huff and finally sat up.

Marceline's jaw dropped at the sight of him, his entire face was a deep red color with several deep burns around his mouth and cheek.

"W-whoa holy shit Finn, did you jump into a volcano or something?"

He chuckled nervously,"….something like that…I finally got to Tier 2"

The blank look on her face told him that she obviously did not know the 15 tiers of dating.

"I kissed Flame Princess"

Her jaw dropped again, though this time with a small grin at the corner of her lips, " ."

"Gaze upon my beatboxin mouth dude, I totally did" he puckered his burnt lips and pointed to them with both hands.

She flew in close and stared. There was no denying it, he actually did it.

Marceline held her hand up, "NICE!"

With the biggest grin on his face he brought his own hand up and smacked it against her own making a victorious high five clap loud enough to echo throughout the cave.

But it was quickly followed by a yelp of pain, "OW"

Upon close inspection, both of his hands were also badly burned.

"Oh jeez sorry!" she laughed as he whined, blowing on his hand in a sad attempt to make the pain go away.

"Wow you finally did it, I'm so proud of you man. I didn't think you had it in you" she grinned, reaching over and ruffling the top of his head making his hat twist around his face.

Finn just laughed, "Proved you wrong, oh yeah…"

She leaned back lightly and poked her chin, "So besides being burned alive, why is your mind all messed up?"

With his hat back on straight, he let out a sigh and sat with his back against the couch arm, Marceline took this oppourtunity to do the same on the opposite end, ears ready to listen.

"…there was some mis-camunication with Peebles" he scratched the back of his neck lightly, "I thought she was jealous"

"Pfft, Bonnie? Jealous? She never liked you that way man"

"I know but…I just thought she did, and the stuff she said. For a moment…I…" Finn groaned and flopping his head back, "I got all confused and went crazy"

This raised a curious brow, "What did she say?"

"She said, and I qoute 'Sometimes when you want someone, want to kiss them and be with them but you can't. Because responsibility demands sacrifice'. I mean…what does that even mean! Was I suppose to stop liking Flame Princess so the world would be safe?"

He stopped himself and sat back up.

"…actually now that I think about it…it makes perfect sense"

Considering when he did kiss her, she exploded and probably could've died and Princess bubblegum did mention in passing that it could've destroyed the entire world so in the end yes…it did make perfect sense.

But Marceline was gone.

Not physically, he looked up to find her right where she was, carefully listening to every word but in her eyes, she was gone.

"Hey…are you ok?" he gently prodded her boot with the tip of his shoe.

"…did…did she really say that?" her voice barely above a whisper.

"Yeah…Marcy are you-"

She shook her head and forced a smile, "I-it's nothing. Don't worry about it"

Like a light switch she returned, sitting up right she leaned in and smiled big, "So! you kissed the Flame Princess, what was it like?"

Immediately he jumped back into it and blushed furiously, though she couldn't tell, his face was already beat red, "Oh man, it was intense and awesome and the most painful thing I have ever endured in my entire life!"

The two remained like this for only an hour more, Marceline sat and listened to the young boy go on and on about how beautiful and wonderful his girlfriend was. How he built a house for her, how much she loved him and he loved her. Later he showed her older burns and scars from hugging her.

The old vampire just smiled and shook her head in pure disbelief. He was killing himself, just to be around her and yet she had never seen him so happy.

"Hey Marceline, thanks for letting me vomit all my issues with ya, I feel a lot better!"

She waved him off as he headed towards the door, "Anytime Finny, you keep your chin up and hang in there"

With a thumbs up, he headed out into the world for a well deserved nap and hopefully more medicine.

"Hey Finn!"

He turned around to find Marceline sticking her head out of the door way.

"Yeah?"

"She's…something special, you take good care of her ok?"

This time, he lifted both his arms up for two thumbs up and another big toothy smile, "You bet!"

With that, she closed the door behind her.

"…responsibility…demands sacrifice huh?" she said a loud.

And suddenly began to laugh weakly. As her boots touched the ground, she spun around to peak out the front window to find Finn laughing and running home.

Despite their little relationship, it wasn't the right time for her to lay out her problems to him. Not when he was so happy and needed her to listen.

But now that he was gone, she felt the need to just say it out loud. Even it it was to nothing.

"They're happy, they're making it work…" she growled, running a hand through her hair she began to pace. Feeling intense frustration suddenly boil her insides.

_'I…I love you'_

_'Marceline…I'm sorry but…'_

Unable to take it any more, she let out a furious roar and launched her fist into the nearest wall.

"Why can't we?" she cried out, expecting no answer but desperately needed one.

The Vampire Queen remained still, staring at the hole in the wall with her fist lodged inside but made no move to remove it. She leaned in and pressed her forehead against the wall where it was now cracking.

And cried.

"Why couldn't we?"

* * *

Was anyone else screaming when PB said this? I was and I'm not sorry. Subtext is a beautiful thing~

~Swd


End file.
